As we enter yet another phase of a pandemic that has highlighted the essential nature of early care and education (ECE) services, California’s ECE sector is experiencing dire staffing shortages (Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, 2022) due in part to the low wages of ECE providers. As of this writing, California has 7,200 fewer child care slots and 7,000 fewer child care jobs than in February 2020, before the onset of the pandemic (Assembly Budget Committee, 2022; BLS Beta Labs, 2022). Throughout the state, administrators cite compensation as a main barrier to recruiting and retaining staff (Kim et al., 2022). The low wages and lack of benefits for the California ECE workforce are increasingly recognized and decried (McLean et al., 2021; Gould et al., 2019; Whitebook et al., 2014). But ECE jobs are not just low wage, they are among the worst-paid jobs in the United States. Although early educators provide the foundation for quality ECE programs and are the backbone of the economy, the wages of child care workers rank in the bottom 2 percent of all occupations, averaging $11.65 per hour nationally (McLean et al., 2021). In the State of California, the ECE workforce is largely women of color (Powell, Kim, et al., 2022). For centuries, care work, the work of women, and the work of people of color have been undervalued in our country (Gould et al., 2021; Austin et al., 2019). This reality, coupled with insufficient public funding and a reliance on parents to shoulder most costs of ECE services, has debilitated the sector. The result is a system in which the vast majority of the workforce does not earn a living wage, with dire consequences for their well-being. Furthermore, this arrangement does not work well for families that struggle to find and afford the care they want and need for their children. This report draws on findings from the California Early Care and Education Workforce Study to report income and benefits of licensed family child care (FCC) providers and center-based directors, teachers, and assistant teachers. This study is the first comprehensive examination of California’s workforce in 15 years. Despite a growing understanding of the importance of early learning and development and the expansion of quality improvement initiatives during this time, little has been done to address the economic well-being of educators themselves. Early educators’ wages are still low. In fact, we estimate that teachers with bachelor’s degrees working in California child care centers saw a decline in actual wages of 1 to 2.5 percent between 2006 and 2022, despite a 35-percent increase in the minimum wage over the same period. To better understand variations and inequities in the system, we examine compensation by educator role and education level as well as program type and funding. We also provide findings by region, when sample sizes allow (see Appendix 2 for map of study regions).

22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) and 22q duplication syndrome present a wide range of medical challenges. The health and well-being of pediatric patients with 22q11DS may be influenced by socioeconomic factors, which can significantly shape their healthcare experiences, access to services, and overall quality of life. The objective of this study is to identify what factors are correlated with no-show clinic visits for children with 22q11DS.

The economic characteristics of one's childhood neighborhood have been found to determine long-term well-being. Policies enacted during childhood may change neighborhood trajectories and thus impact long-term outcomes for children. We use individual-level data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study to examine the enduring consequences of childhood exposure to local-area New Deal emergency employment work-relief activity. Our outcomes include adolescent cognition, educational attainment, midlife income, health behaviors, late-life cognition, and mortality. We find that children (ages 0–3) living in neighborhoods with moderate work-relief activity in 1940 had higher adolescent IQ scores, had higher class rank, and were more likely to obtain at least a bachelor's degree. We find enduring benefits for midlife income and late-life cognition for males who grew up in areas with a moderate amount of work relief. We find mixed results for males who grew up in the most disadvantaged areas with the highest levels of work-relief activity. These children had similar educational outcomes as those in the most advantaged districts with the lowest work-relief activity but had higher adult smoking rates. Our findings provide some of the first evidence of the long-term consequences of New Deal policies on children's long-term life course outcomes.

This research provides an extended profile of the social and economic well-being of rural Pennsylvania women. Using highly credible secondary data sources, the research describes the life circumstances of contemporary rural women. Rural Pennsylvania women, grouped into three broad age categories, are compared to their urban counterparts as well as to both rural men and urban men in the state. Trends spanning about a decade are depicted, and contextual measures and geographic considerations provide depth to the profiles of these women’s lives.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear the vital role women play in our economy and in the economic security of families, both nationally and in Texas. Now more than ever, lawmakers in Texas must do better to ensure all women and families have quality reproductive health care, safe workplaces, equal representation in government, and economic security. Women need policies that reflect their roles as providers and caregivers—roles that the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated are critical to the well-being of families, communities, and the economy. In Texas, mothers are the sole, primary, or co-breadwinners in 60.3 percent of families, and these numbers are higher for some mothers of color across the United States. The following policy recommendations can help support the economic security of women and families in Texas.

Time and income are distinct and critical resources needed in the pursuit of happiness (life satisfaction). Income can be used to purchase market goods and services, and time can be used to spend time with friends and family, rest and sleep, and other activities. Yet little research has examined how different combinations of time and income affect life satisfaction, and if more of both is positively associated with greater levels of life satisfaction. We investigate whether life satisfaction significantly varies with time and income using data from the American Time Use Survey and its well-being module, which is a nationally representative sample of over 5000 US respondents over the age of 15. We plot a three-dimensional space exploring the relationship among time, income, and life satisfaction, finding people with similar incomes with less free time have lower levels of life satisfaction. We also identify different four subpopulations, three of which have low well-being along time and income, and one with high well-being along time and income. These subgroups significantly differ along key characteristics. Respondents with less free time and low income—the doubly poor—are more likely to be female, less educated, and have more than two kids and young children. Those with low income but lots of time, in comparison, are more likely to be black, unemployed, and have some physical or cognitive difficult. We conclude that time provides unique insights into human well-being that income alone cannot capture and should be further incorporated into research and policy on life satisfaction.

Losing a partner is a life-changing experience. We draw on numerous datasets to examine differences between widowed and partnered older women and to provide a comprehensive picture of well-being in widowhood. Most importantly, our analysis accounts for time use in widowhood, an aspect which has not been studied previously. Based on data from several European countries we trace the evolution of well-being of women who become widowed by comparing them with their matched non-widowed ‘statistical twins’ and examine the role of an exceptionally broad set of potential moderators of widowhood’s impact on well-being. We confirm a dramatic decrease in mental health and life satisfaction after the loss of partner, followed by a slow recovery. An extensive set of controls recorded prior to widowhood, including detailed family ties and social networks, provides little help in explaining the deterioration in well-being. Unique data from time-diaries kept by older women from several European countries and the U.S. tell us why: the key factor behind widows’ reduced well-being is increased time spent alone.

The nonproot Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people's lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists, and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Our work inspires eeective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the well-being of people and places.

Despite recent advancements in global population well-being and food security, climate change threatens to undermine child nutritional health, particularly for marginalized populations in tropical low- and middle-income countries. South Asia is at particular risk for climate-driven undernutrition due to a combination of historical weather exposures, existing nutritional deficits, and a lack of sanitation access. Previous studies have established that precipitation extremes increase rates of undernutrition in this region, but the existing literature lacks adequate consideration of temperature anomalies, mediating social factors, and the developmentally-relevant timing of exposure. We combine high-resolution temperature and precipitation data with large-sample survey data on household demographics and child anthropometry, using an approach that incorporates three key developmental periods and a rigorous fixed effects design. We find that precipitation extremes in the first year of life significantly decrease children's height-for-age (HAZ) in South Asia. The detrimental effects of extreme precipitation are especially concentrated in under-resourced households, such as those lacking access to proper sanitation and education for women, while anomalous heat is particularly harmful for children in Pakistan, though it tends to benefit children in some demographic groups. These results indicate that nutritional status in South Asia is highly responsive to climate exposures, and that addressing sanitation infrastructure and other development priorities is a pathway towards reducing this vulnerability.

Objective: Ensuring access to sufficient foods at all times is critical to veterans’ health and well-being. Food insecurity has not been well explored in the veteran population. We examined the prevalence and predictors of food insecurity among low-income veterans, because the highest rates of food insecurity are among low-income households. We also examined rates of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation among subgroups at the highest risk of food insecurity. Methods: We used univariate analyses and 2011-2017 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data on veterans aged ≥21 with family incomes <200% of the federal poverty level to estimate the prevalence of food insecurity. We used bivariate analyses to identify correlates of food insecurity and estimate SNAP participation rates among subgroups of low-income veterans. Percentages were weighted using NHIS survey weights. Results: Of 5146 low-income veterans, 22.5% reported being food insecure in the previous month. Food insecurity was significantly associated with being aged <65 (33.0% aged 45-64 and 29.7% aged 21-44) compared with 15.0% and 6.4% among veterans aged 65-74 and ≥75, respectively (P <.001); unemployed compared with employed or not in the labor force (39.4%, 22.7%, and 20.2%, respectively; P <.001); in fair or poor health compared with good, very good, or excellent heath (31.8% vs 18.2%; P <.001); and having experienced serious psychological distress in the past month (56.3%) compared with not having experienced such distress (19.7%; P <.001). Although overall SNAP participation among low-income veterans was estimated to be 27.0%, participation rates were highest among veterans who had experienced serious psychological distress (44.1%), were unemployed (39.2%), and were renting their home (39.0%). Conclusions: Some low-income veterans are at greater risk of food insecurity than other veterans. Postseparation programs, civilian support services, and veterans’ health providers should be aware of the characteristics that place veterans at highest risk of food insecurity.

Individuals living in every region of the world are increasingly vulnerable to negative health outcomes due to extreme heat exposure. Children, in particular, may face long-term consequences associated with heat stress that affect their educational attainment and later life health and well-being. Retrospective individual-level analyses are useful for determining the effects of extreme heat exposure on health outcomes. Typically, future risk is inferred by extrapolating these effects using future warming scenarios that are applied uniformly over space and time without consideration of topographical or climatological gradients. We propose an alternative approach using a stochastic weather generator. This approach employs a 1 °C warming scenario to produce an ensemble of plausible future weather scenarios, and subsequently a distribution of future health risks. We focus on the effect of global warming on fetal development as measured by birth weight in Ethiopia. We demonstrate that predicted changes in birth weight are sensitive to the evolution of temperatures not quantified in a uniform warming scenario. Distributions of predicted changes in birth weight vary in magnitude and variability depending on geographic and socioeconomic region. We present these distributions alongside results from the uniform warming scenario and discuss the spatiotemporal variability of these predicted changes.

The nonprofit Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people's lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists, and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Our work inspires effective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the well-being of people and places.

The Connecticut Department of Housing, in conjunction with Connecticut Department of Social Services, commissioned this study of affordable and accessible housing in May 2020 to examine how strategic deployment of state resources could best meet the current and future housing needs of Connecticut’s vulnerable and low-income residents. This report provides the first comprehensive look at affordable and accessible housing needs in Connecticut. Prepared collaboratively by Fairfield County’s Center for Housing Opportunity, Urban Institute, Corporation for Supportive Housing, Data Haven, and Source Development Hub (the study team), the data presented here inform the following questions: Who lives in Connecticut, and what kind of housing do they occupy? Are affordable housing resources meeting resident needs? Are accessible housing resources meeting resident needs? What can Connecticut do to best meet the current and future housing needs of low-income households and households that include someone with a disability? Questions about affordable and accessible housing resources and needs are answered based on the present situation in the state and its counties and the study team’s projections of future needs. The concluding chapter provides policy and program recommendations for the state to address the affordable and accessible housing gaps identified in the analysis, as well as to improve the state’s ability to have reliable data for tracking progress toward housing goals and outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has indisputably highlighted the critical role that safe, stable, affordable, and accessible housing plays in the well-being of households and communities. The disparity in housing opportunity by income level, race, and zip code laid bare by the pandemic and economic turndown underscores the importance of data-driven policymaking and community planning and development. The study team hopes that our analysis, findings, and recommendations can guide Connecticut in a targeted, proactive, and holistic approach to ensuring the housing needs of all residents are met going forward. This report is written for a non-expert audience. Where it is necessary to use technical terms, those terms are explained in the text and exhibits. Additional definitions can be found in appendix A. Although counties do not have governing bodies, they are the primary unit of analysis because of their consistency over time, regional implications, and widely available aggregated data.

Progress in narrowing education and employment gender gaps is being observed in many countries across the world and has come to be known as the “gender revolution”. Today, women are entering higher education in large numbers and have begun to outperform men. They are spending more time in the labour market and, in some countries, the employment rates of both genders have converged. These changes are impacting women’s family and work lives globally, and Egypt is no exception. Similar to other patriarchal Arab countries, however, is that gender relations in Egypt have remained unequal in the family, and expectations of marriage and motherhood are commonplace. These continuing gender inequalities remain understudied. To fill this gap, this thesis explores the ways in which resources and cultural constraints in modern-day Egypt shape gender inequalities at the work-family interface during key life stages and events: adolescence, marriage, and reproduction. Specifically, I examine how gender inequalities persist across generations in the Egyptian family, and what these mean for women’s socioeconomic well-being in marriage. To do so, attention is paid to three key dimensions of gender inequality: women’s employment stability, their risk of intimate partner violence (IPV), and their household decision-making power. Using both cross-sectional and longitudinal data from Egypt permitted a quantitative analysis of women’s resources, cultural norms, and their interaction, on women’s empowerment in the Egyptian family. The thesis is ordered to follow a woman’s normative life trajectory in Egypt. It begins by providing the first investigation of the intergenerational link between maternal employment during women’s own adolescence and their subsequent adult employment stability. While identifying the positive impact of maternal employment, this study finds that this link is mediated by women’s education, and moderated by the employment sector. Next, building on existing research, this thesis explores how, if at all, the Arab Spring has altered women’s risk of IPV in marriage. I consider whether women’s employment offers more effective protection against IPV, using data before and after the revolution. Finally, I examine whether women’s household decision-making power is affected by women’s command of resources. Here, I move beyond considering the resources of education and employment to also consider women’s patrilineal fertility—that is, having at least one son—and how it operates alongside women’s education and employment. The thesis fills an important gap by assessing how cultural, economic, and noneconomic resources come together to configure power relations in the family and gender inequalities in the labour market in a non-Western context. It uncovers the mechanisms that maintain and reinforce gender inequality within the Egyptian family. By drawing attention to contextual changes and historic events such as the Arab Spring, it also highlights how these inequalities have remained stubborn, despite sweeping sociopolitical changes. Together, the findings from this study reveal a mosaic of social changes characterised by both progress and stasis. Thus, the thesis documents an incomplete gender revolution in Egypt—maternal employment enhances women’s employment stability, and, in turn, women’s employment reduces their risk of IPV; yet their marital power remains contingent on the birth of a son, regardless of their education and employment.

The negative impacts of the Great Recession (GR) (2007 to 2009) on the lives of families with low incomes warrant social work concerns about how well antipoverty policy responded to meet economic needs over this period and since. Given America's long-standing tension between welfare state adequacy and market-oriented policies, how well did the safety net respond to the economic downturn? Did GR-era changes reverse or accelerate trends in public assistance? This article examines key policy changes and indicators of caseloads, inclusion, and generosity for three antipoverty policies: the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamp Program), and the Earned Income Tax Credit from 2007 to 2017. Authors' analysis shows a continuation of market-oriented U.S. antipoverty policy. Authors argue that the reemphasis of conditioning benefits on employment undermines the countercyclical feature of the social safety net and perpetuates the inequitable redistribution of public resources between those inside and outside of the labor market. Authors discuss social workers' role in strengthening antipoverty policies to improve the economic well-being of people with low incomes and the economic justice of the social safety net.

Access to electricity and modern cooking fuels, especially for women, leads to time savings in the home, improved health and better access to information. These factors increase women’s well-being and enhance their ability to make reproductive choices, which is empirically expressed by falling birth rates. This study provides an international analysis of the relationship between access to modern energy and fertility, based on panel data synthesized from 155 Demographic and Health Surveys over 26 years. Controlling for other determinants, we find that access to electricity and modern cooking fuels, along with education, negatively affects fertility. Energy and education effects are complementary and strongest in regions with initially high fertility rates. Expanded access to modern energy and education would accelerate the demographic transition. Therefore, the energy demand and carbon emissions needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of energy access while ensuring gender equality and climate action would be lower in the long term than currently assumed. The fertility transition, expressed through falling birth rates and increased well-being for women and children, is a function of many social and economic changes. This paper examines the role of access to electricity and modern cooking fuels on fertility rates, suggesting that cleaner energy and ending energy poverty contribute to gender equality and the achievement of other Sustainable Development Goals.

Background: A growing proportion of cancer survivors experience financial toxicity. However, the psychological burden of cancer costs and associated mental health outcomes require further investigation. We assessed prevalence and predictors of self-reported financial worry and mental health outcomes among cancer survivors. Patients and methods: Data from the 2013–2018 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) for adults reporting a cancer diagnosis were used. Multivariable ordinal logistic regressions defined adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of reporting financial worry by relevant sociodemographic variables, and sample weight-adjusted prevalence of financial worry was estimated. The association between financial worry and psychological distress, as defined by the six-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale was also assessed. Results: Among 13,361 survey participants (median age 67; 60.0% female), 9567 (71.6%) self-reported financial worry, including worries regarding costs of paying for children’s college education (62.7%), maintaining one’s standard of living (59.7%), and medical costs due to illness or accident (58.3%). Female sex, younger age, and Asian American race were associated with increased odds of financial worry (P < 0.05 for all). Of 13,218 participants with complete responses to K6 questions, 701 (5.3%) met the threshold for severe psychological distress. Participants endorsing financial worry were more likely to have psychological distress (6.6 vs. 1.2%, AOR 2.89, 95% CI 2.03–4.13, P< 0.001) with each additional worry conferring 23.9% increased likelihood of psychological distress. Conclusions: A majority of cancer survivors reported financial worry, which was associated with greater odds of reporting psychological distress. Policies and guidelines are needed to identify and mitigate financial worries and psychologic distress among patients with cancer, with the goal of improving psychological well-being and overall cancer survivorship care.

The American Voices Project (AVP) relies on immersive interviews to deliver a comprehensive portrait of life across the country. The interview protocol blends qualitative, survey, administrative, and experimental approaches to collecting data on such topics as family, living situations, community, health, emotional well-being, living costs, and income. The AVP is based on a nationally representative sample of hundreds of communities in the United States. Within each of these sites, a representative sample of addresses is selected. In March 2020, recruitment and interviewing began to be carried out remotely (instead of face-to-face), and questions were added on the pandemic, health and health care, race and systemic racism, employment and earnings, schooling and childcare, and new types of safety net usage (including new stimulus programs). The "Monitoring the Crisis" series-which is co-sponsored by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston-uses AVP interviews conducted during recent months to provide timely reports on what's happening throughout the country as the pandemic and recession play out. To protect respondents' anonymity, all quotations presented in this series are altered slightly by changing inconsequential details.

While much research has been done on the causes and correlates of subjective well-being over the last two decades, a relatively small number of studies have addressed disparities in subjective well-being between various racial and ethnic groups. Recently more research has addressed the differences between blacks and whites, and begun to unpack the causes for these differences. A smaller number of studies have started to look at differences between white and Latinx respondents. In the present work we add to this literature by examining differences in life satisfaction between white, Latinx and Asian respondents, as well as the persistence of these differences after controlling for a variety of social, economic and lifestyle variables. After assessing how much of the racial and ethnic disparity between these groups can be explained by such factors, we present additional preliminary analysis that begins to explore the role of culture in understanding the relationship between race, ethnicity and subjective well-being.